There is known in the prior art bi-directional pneumatic transport network systems that employ different pressure levels in front of and behind a transported object to propel that object in the system. These include banking pneumatic transport network systems for shuttling documents (e.g., checks, money, deposit slips, etc.) between teller and customer stations of that system. Other examples of uses for pneumatic transportation or transmission systems include sending documents between floors in a building or from one office to another office located some distance apart. Pneumatic transportation systems are also utilized in the transportation of medical materials and other goods.
An example of a transport network system used for transporting documents in a banking pneumatic transport network is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,367 to the present inventor Scott (the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference). The '367 system utilizes atmospheric pressure to help move the carrier within the network. In order to send the carrier from the station at which the pressure generation apparatus is connected to the network, there is provided a control means that controls the pumping element and pressure generation apparatus in order to create a vacuum in the tube network in front of the carrier. Thus, atmospheric pressure entering the station from beneath the carrier begins to move the carrier out of such station. Then when the door of that station is closed, the control means causes a pressurizing air stream to enter the tube network from that station in order to propel the carrier through the network to another station. The control means, responds to commands from an operator, as well as signals from the sensors in the network. In Scott '367, the pneumatic transport network is utilized as a conveyance system for a bank drive-through arrangement to convey “documentation” as in money between a teller and a customer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,354 describes a “double tube system” pneumatic transmission system adapted to send a carrier from one terminal to a second terminal with apparatus to control the free delivery of the carrier to a terminal comprising a check valve to relieve pressure behind a carrier once it has passed a check valve and an adjustable air valve to control the negative pressure ahead of the carrier to control the free delivery of the carrier from the end of the transmission tube in a single tube reversing system with negligible amount of air being taken into or discharged from the open terminal. The “double-tube” system requires an extensive gas flow tubing network.
Another known pneumatic conveyance system is schematically shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B (Prior Art). This known system, intended for use by a drive up customer at a financial institution, is generally depicted by reference numeral 100. System 100 includes various components on a customer side 160, in an attic 180, above a ceiling 116 and on a teller side 190. Attic 180 is an enclosed, hidden compartment often provided within a car port extending from the main body of a bank and which car port covers over the teller station as shown in FIG. 1A.
A vertical tube section 102 provides transport carrier access to the customer. The customer places documents into a transport carrier 104 and places that carrier (typically a cylindrical canister with rotating end cap with opposite end annular “dissipating” flange seals) inside a customer station 106 to which the first vertical tube section 102 connects.
In operation, transport carrier or canister 104 is moved pneumatically upward through vertical tube section 102, along a customer side curved tube section 103 through a transverse tube section 108 (illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B but normally hidden from view in use as it extends above ceiling 116), to a second, teller side curved tube section 105 and then to vertical tube section 110, coming to rest at a teller station 112 having a canister reception chamber with a suitable permanent or releasable canister stop (not shown). Canister 104 is propelled by air flow caused by pressure drop across the container. Pressure on both sides of the container is controlled with pumps and valves. A turbine box 114 drives air into or exhausts air from tube section 118. A tube section 120 is connected to form a T-junction 122 relative to tube sections 118 and 119 extending to opposite sides of tube section 120. Relative to the gas flow tubing 109, valve 124 controls air flow between tube section 120 and tube section 126, which connects at a T-junction 128 to the carrier transport tube assembly 107. That is, pneumatic conveyance system 100 includes carrier transport tube assembly 107 in which both air and the transport carrier traverse and system 100 further includes gas flow tubing 109 comprised of tube sections in which air traverses but not the transport carrier.
Transverse tube section 108 has a first end 130 that is positioned at the border region between transverse tube section 108 and customer side curved tube section 103. Flap valve 132 is provided near a second end 134 of transverse tube section 108 on the teller side curved tube section as shown. As part of the gas flow tubing 109, tube section 118 connects, via tube section 119, to vertical gas flow tube section 140 that connects at its opposite end with customer station 106.
In order to land container 104 relatively softly at teller station 112, air is gradually vented from tube section 110 at the teller station (by passage around the partial seals of canister 104). Turbine box 1 14 can be operated to flow air into the system or draw air from the system so that canister 104 can be propelled either from customer station 106 to teller station 112 or from teller station 112 to customer station 106.
One problem of this type of known system is that when canister 104 is moving from the teller side 190 to the customer side 160, (during which movement it passes by the flap valve 132 and the porting for check valve 124 positioned in the attic 180) the transport carrier experiences a long slow glide against air pressure as it falls within tube section 102 toward the customer station 106. For a high ceiling 116, which is preferred to accommodate a wide variety of vehicles as in trucks, etc., this drop can be 20 feet or more and can take a considerable length of time.
The long slow glide of the transport carrier to the customer station represents a form of delay for a customer awaiting service. This delay creates the potential for service provider dissatisfaction, particularly customers who are waiting in a line of customers at a busy facility as in a drive-through banking facility. Accordingly, the delay associated with a long, slow glide of the carrier to the carrier reception terminal presents a problem in the art.
Furthermore, there is a need in the art for lessening the complexity of transport networks to lower manufacture, installation and service costs associated with a pneumatic carrier transportation system, particularly, with the extensiveness of the gas flow tubing and the complexity, size and weight of the turbine box needed to properly supply the flow tubing and carrier tubing networks. For example, prior art systems such as that shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, require an extra elbow 128 with the vacuum hose connection welded in the turn for the vacuum connection which increases cost from both a component cost and service installation standpoint.